Memento
by Stessa
Summary: BethxKate: She'd thought more about that kiss in that car than she probably should have. It was time to do something about it. Even if it meant going to Carrie for help and starting another adventure with the boob-cam. She just had to have Beth.


**MEMENTO**

A _Beth _and _Kate _oneshot

written by _**Stessa **_

–

"CARRIE!"

So it wasn't exactly like Kate wanted it to be (she sort of hadn't expected to shout out her friend's name in desperation. She'd thought she would be more... subtle about it), but it was the way it had to be. She certainly couldn't take it back now. Every head in the hallway had turned in her direction, which wouldn't have been unusual for her just a couple of months ago, but now – after the entire thing with John Tucker had calmed down – it was pretty weird. Plus, she didn't really want them to pay attention to her; she just wanted a moment in privacy to talk to one of her best friends.

It was sort of weird to think of Carrie that way (and Heather and Beth for that matter), because she'd never really had that many friends; she's always been the odd one out, the loner. But now she knew these three amazing girls who in the beginning might have only wanted to know her for their own evil purposes, but now actually seemed to like her for who she was. Simply just Kate.

Carrie offered her an understanding smile as she turned around in her tracks; she was heading towards the editing room where she still spent a lot of time, but she always had time to talk to one of her three best friends, Kate knew that. As Kate caught up with the other blonde, Carrie grabbed her by the arm and pulled her through the doors to the classroom they were coincidentally passing by. When they were inside, she smacked the door close behind them and leaned herself against the door handle.

She breathed out. "What?"

Kate blinked a few times, not quite sure what had just happened, because it all flew by her so quickly.

"Ka-ate?" Carrie said, pronouncing her name very carefully, as if she was talking to some retard, "Hel-lo? You there?"

Kate made a face. "I... wanted to talk to you about something?" she finally got out, a smile playing in the right corner of her lips. It wasn't even intentionally, because what she wanted to talk to Carrie about was rather important, and only for Carrie's ears so far. That was why they had to do it during school hours, otherwise either Heather or Beth would be there, and this was to be between her and Carrie (at least for now).

Carrie looked relieved to discover that she actually hadn't lost the ability to talk. "Oh. Now? You need to talk to me right now?"

Kate nodded. "I do. It's important, and I feel like I can only talk to you about this."

She must have looked rather serious, because Carrie immediately looked worried; she got that certain look in her eyes, and Kate was happy that she would feel that way for her, so concerned, but she also wanted to reassure her. But before she could do so, Carrie spoke, in that fast-mannered way that only she could. "What is it? Are you in trouble? Are you moving again? Did your mother meet another Skip? Are you – are you in love? Oh no! Don't tell me! You've fallen for John!"

When she was done speaking after firing that last far-off comment off, Kate couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't laugh at me!" Carrie ordered, "Kate! It's not funny, don't laugh!"

Kate had to calm herself down severely before she could even speak again. "Seriously Carrie, really? How can you even think that I'd fall for John Tucker!"

Carrie shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you were about to when _we_ were making _him_ fall for _you_."

"Don't worry about it." Kate reassured her. Of course it was something in that area, but John Tucker was very far out of the picture. "It's actually... something like that, though not quite that."

For a second there, it seemed to Kate that Carrie actually knew what she was talking about, because she got this understanding look across her face, but it only lasted for a short while, and then the taller blonde had placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know you can talk to me about anything, Kate."

Kate knew that. She knew that out of any of her friends, Carrie would be the one to turn to with this certain problem – with any problem really. She knew that she could tell her everything on her mind, and she would do her best to help. That's why she came to her to begin with; she needed the help.

Kate dropped her bag to the floor and placed her massive load of books on the teacher's desk, before she took a seat on another desk, now facing Carrie, who was still standing in front of the door, in case anyone decided to get the same idea as them; they didn't want to be interrupted.

"Remember when I had my first date with John?" Kate begun, staring out slowly; not just to trick Carrie's memory, but also to gather up the courage. "When we went to the beach?"

"Sure." Carrie mumbled and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You had your boob-cam on. Heather, Beth and I were following you every step of the way, how can I forget?"

Kate smiled at her briefly as she fidgeted with her fingers in her lap. She had never been good with these kind of things; she had only ever been this honest with her mother, and not even her had she told this. "Remember when he wanted to drive me home?" she continued, looking up at Carrie through the shielding curtain of her hair. "Y'know? When I was waiting for him in the truck."

Carrie smirked. "You so weren't ready for that. We sent Beth to the rescue."

Kate felt her chest tighten. "Yeah." she swallowed loudly – too loudly? - and continued. "That's exactly the cause of my problem."

Now Carrie looked really confused, but also curious. She let door be door and took a few steps closer to Kate, so they were standing right in front of each other. Her arms fell to her sides and she blinked. "How so?"

Kate sighed deeply. "You know this, 'cuz you saw everything through my boob, but... I'd never kissed anyone. Not really." she didn't want to stop now, she was on a roll, and she better get it said while she knew she was able to. "So Beth offered to teach me..." she trailed off, hoping that maybe – just maybe – Carrie would catch the hint. She was one of the smartest people in school after all.

Carrie didn't catch it though. "Yeah?"

"Just a short little peck on the lips." Kate confirmed.

Carrie still wasn't following her. "Yeah, and then you kissed John later. Beth told us, because the boob-cam went out, but she was right there, getting out of her dress, she saw it."

Kate looked up then, saw her straight in the eye, while she gave a short nod to confirm. "That's right." she paused. "Is it weird that when I got to bed that night and went over everything that had happened to me that evening, I thought more about that short peck Beth gave me, than when John kissed me on the lane?"

Alright. She'd said it. The cat was out of the bag, and now she was just waiting for a reaction. She didn't know what to expect, but she knew that Carrie would react some way to this – she was just hoping for the right one.

And a light definitely seemed to dawn on Carrie right then and there. At first her face tensed up a bit, but then realization hit her, and her face loosened, and her shoulder sunk down. She took a step closer, so she was standing right in front of Kate, almost between her legs. "I see." she whispered.

Kate swallowed again.

"You think you might like girls?"

There was a nod.

"And not only that," Carrie continued in a whisper, "you think you might like Beth?"

Again. There was a nod.

Carrie took a step back. "Gosh, that makes so much sense to me now!"

Kate arched an eyebrow, "How so?" she wanted to know. It was sort of weird to be having this conversation right now, because she'd gone it over so many times in her head these past few hours (even during school, she got called on in Spanish and AP Literature, and hadn't known what to say), but never had she thought that Carrie's reaction would be like this... she hadn't really thought much of her reaction at all, to be honest.

The older blonde got a soft look across her face. "I was so confused when you didn't go out with The Other Tucker, I mean... we all thought you liked him, yet nothing." she shrugged her shoulders, "Now I see that you like girls. And it even makes sense in another aspect – I thought I saw something between you and Beth, something there wasn't between you and Heather, or even you and I. It was strange, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it, yet now, here we are."

"Yeah..." Kate trailed off, not quite knowing how to respond to that short monologue of hers, "here we are."

"So." Carrie stated as she crossed her arms again and gave her a once-over, "What are you gonna do about this?"

-

"Heather?"

There was no response.

"Heather, could you stop for a second?"

"..."

"HEATHER, GODDAMNIT!"

The fierce cheerleader stopped abruptly in her steps and turned around to look at Beth with a seriously bothered expression across her face; Beth didn't back down from her task though, because there was a reason she'd snuck into the filthy and smelly gym to begin with – she needed help from one of her best friends, no matter if that certain friend tried to hurry out of there with that ignorant look on her face before she was able to stop her.

Beth offered her a smile she knew would annoy her. "Oh, I'm so glad you heard me, Heather, I was worried I wasn't calling your name loud enough."

Heather rolled her eyes. It was this game they had. Even if they'd become close friends these past couple of months, the two of them still butted heads way more than should be allowed; their opinions on just about everything were just too different. "Oh don't worry, I heard your obnoxiously loud voice the first time, I was just tripping to the bathroom."

Beth bit her lip so she wouldn't make a lame-ass comment. "Oh."

Heather raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "So did you want something?"

Beth wasn't the most serious of people (she was probably the least serious in their group of four), so she knew that Heather was bound to not take her seriously when she started talking; she'd just have to wait and convince her that this really was important to her.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something very important." Beth informed her and jumped the two last rows of seats, so she was standing on the gym floor, just like Heather.

Heather made a face. "Sure. What now? Another petition you need me to sign? Oh, let me guess, this time it's about..." she pretended to think for a few seconds, while Beth just watched her, "...dolphins! This time it's about _dolphins_!"

Normally Beth wouldn't have taken this kind of treatment from her, but today she actually wanted her advice, and therefore didn't want to fire her up. There was no need for that, so she just raised an eyebrow and decided to ignore her stupid comment. "No actually, no petition for me today, it's actually more of a... uhm, personal matter?"

This seemed to really catch Heather's attention, because she looked over her shoulders to see where her fellow cheerleaders had gone, and then strutted into one of the vacant changing rooms, Beth following right in suit with a contend smile on her face – Heather was interested, otherwise she hadn't gone through the troubles it was to actually walk with her to be in private.

When they entered the room, Heather made sure to lock the door behind them, before she took a seat – as gracefully as was possible in a smelly changing room – on one of the benches. Beth leaned herself against a row of lockers and smiled to herself when she remembered that Carrie had once hid herself inside of one of these and nearly suffocated to death.

"What is it then?" Heather asked and crossed one leg over the other; that girl never lost her touch – no matter where she was at, she looked glamorous.

"I'll cut right to the chase." Beth informed her; there was no need beating around the bush or anything. She wasn't the type anyway – subtle really wasn't her thing. "I think I might be changing teams. A gay. Lesbian."

Heather chuckled to herself. "Now, why does that not surprise me? You're such a slut, it would have to happen someday."

"Hey!" Beth objected, knowing it was only appropriate to be offended, even though she knew that she was easy.

"Plus," Heather added, with a lick of her lips, "you were so close up in Kate's boob when you were testing her boob-cam, I was surprised you didn't just stick your face in there."

Beth rolled her eyes. Now, that boob-cam had been one good experience. Plus the thing that had happened later as well... that had been an even better experience. The only thing bad about that night was that it was John who'd gotten her out of her skirt, not Kate.

Heather looked expectantly at her, as if she was waiting for her to say something. Not really sure what she wanted to hear, Beth made a face, "What?"

"When are you gonna tell her!"

"Tell who?"

There was a beat.

"When are you gonna tell Kate you're in love with her?" Heather elaborated, as if she was some stupid retard.

Beth was pretty sure she had never uttered the words 'I'm in love with our friend Kate', yet – for some reason – Heather still knew this. Was she that obvious? Was she that lovestruck? "How did you-?"

"Know?" Heather smiled, "Oh please. It's written all over your face. I'm not too sure about Kate though, I mean, she does qualify as a possibility, so I think you should just tell her. She probably won't be surprised, I mean, it's you we're discussing here, right?"

Once more, Beth didn't know whether to be offended or not (that happened a lot when she spoke with Heather), so she decided just to skip over that last comment and discuss the seriousness of this conversation. "I'm just really worried that she won't like me." Beth whispered, fidgeting with her fingers as she stood there. She usually wasn't like this, she was confident and determined, but for some reason it was different with Kate; she just meant too much to her, apparently.

Heather snorted. "I'm not sure she's gay, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. You're hot, even I can admit that, and if she passes on you, you'll just mingle two seconds with the _Gay and Lesbian Club _and you'll have yourself twenty hot dates and be over her in no time."

Beth didn't really want to tell her otherwise, tell her that she was really in love with their friend and it would take more than 'no time' to get over her, so she just nodded and pretended to think for a second. "But how do I tell her? How do I go about it?"

Heather bit her lip as she looked down in thought. "This Friday, when we're at Kate's place! I'll make sure to leave early, and knowing Carrie, she'll have some homework to do and that'll leave you and Kate alone." she paused, "Then you just – tell her."

It was the 'tell her' part that would be the tough one. It wasn't easy breaking news like that to anyone. But Kate would be able to handle it, Beth knew she was strong. If it turned out bad for them, they'd just move through it and come out stronger on the other side. That was the plan right now. Tell her, and then just... take it from there.

"Okay." Beth confirmed. "If you make sure I'm alone with her, I'll do the rest."

Heather got a sneaky smile across her face. "_No_ problem..."

-

"Testing, one-two, one-two..."

Carrie tapped the small screen in her hand and looked up at Kate with a thoughtful expression across her face. "Could you say something again, it's a bit scratchy?"

Kate bent her head once more and hadn't she done this before, she might have found it weird, but being friends with Carrie definitely made her do these things more often that she probably should have. "Testing my boob-cam, one-two-three, one-two-three..."

"It's good! It's good!" Carrie interrupted her with a huge smile across her face. "It's all good, I just needed to check the wires."

Kate smiled back at her and turned to look at her mirror, so she made sure that the small device wasn't easy to see when she was wearing her outfit this evening. Not that it really was an 'outfit' so to speak, because they were just playing video games and watching movies, so she was going to be in her sweatpants all night.

Carrie stood up right next to her and corrected a piece of her runaway hair. "There. All set for the big night." she wriggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Kate stuck her tongue out at her. "Is this really necessary?" she questioned. She felt like she had to ask (someone always did have to ask, and her being the most sensible one, she always ended up doing it). "I mean – I could also try just, I dunno, talking to her?"

"You are going to talk to her!" Carrie confirmed as their eyes met in a serious hold, "I'll just be taping it so tomorrow I can watch it all and see what you need to work on with her when you're alone. I've got no idea what you're like when it's just the two of you."

Kate had to admit that that sounded pretty smart, because knowing herself, she was definitely going to screw their plan up somehow. Carrie had promised that she'd get Heather out of there in some way so Kate could get some well-deserved alone time with Beth. Kate was so excited for that to happen; she could already feel the butterflies in her stomach, fluttering away in nervousness.

She was going to tell her tonight. And after that – nothing was going to be the same again.

"Kate! Heather and Beth are here!"

Carrie and Kate looked at each other by the sound of Lori yelling up at them, and making a quick squeal, the both of them hurried out of the room, Carrie hiding her screen in her overnight bag, before she stormed down the stairs in Kate's tracks. Lori had already led Heather and Beth inside and the three women were in the kitchen, chatting away.

"Hi guys." Kate mumbled when she entered; she couldn't help but let her eyes linger a bit too longer on Beth than on Heather, before she stepped towards the counter and started helping her crush unpack all the junk food she'd brought with her.

"We're gonna get sooo fat." Carrie mumbled, before she took a seat on the couch with her arms crossed.

Lori winked at her, "Don't worry, you can take it. Plus, we're all allowed to go a little crazy sometimes, right? And it's girls' night in, who can blame you?"

Heather nodded in agreement, "I'm so with you, Lori, we _all _need a bit of relaxing."

Kate smiled at Beth as the last bag of chips was thrown to the table. "You went all out, didn't you?"

Beth shrugged her shoulders, "At least it's all organic, none of that greasy fat from animals, that's something, right?"

Kate couldn't help but smile at her, "You're right, that is something." she looked at all the bags once more and sighed, "Will you help me carry these upstairs?"

Reaching for a jug of coke, Beth said, "Of course! Let us butches do the work."

Carrie rolled her eyes as she watched the two girls leave the room. She sighed heavily and uncrossed her arms.

"I'm with ya', sister." Heather agreed with that certain look of hers, "I don't know how they could possibly be more obvious!"

Lori raised an eyebrow and turned to the two girls. "Obvious? What do you mean?"

The two girls shared a look in understanding before Carrie spoke up, "Not to freak you out or anything Lori, but – I think your daughter might be gay."

Heather added, "And soon enough you'll have Beth as a daughter-in-law, infesting your house with organic food!" she made an ironic frightened sound and Carrie chuckled.

Lori chuckled too. "I guess I should have seen that." she sighed and sat down on the soft chair. "I mean – there was never _any_ boys."

"That doesn't necessarily prove to you she's gay," Heather butted in, "I mean, look at Beth, there has been plenty of boys, let me tell ya'."

Lori shook her head with a thoughtful expression across her face. "She talks so much about you three. But always a bit more about Beth. And her eyes when she mentions her name... It's not strange, is it? I mean, they'll be happy together, won't they?"

Carrie nudged her with her foot. "Don't worry, Heather and I have decided to interfere because things were getting nowhere. We're gonna leave early tonight, and before tomorrow comes, I think it's pretty sure they've gotten together."

"GUYS!" Beth hollered from upstairs. "Could you grab the rest of the stuff and we'll hit the couch!"

Heather stood up and smiled warmly at Lori. "It's time to hit the battlefield."

-

"Oooh! Would you look at that, would you look at that! _That's_ classic!" Beth hollered, just as she manoeuvred her car pass both Carrie and Heather's and won the race right in front of their noses.

Kate, who'd been so far behind that she'd given up on even trying to be in the game, laughed and clapped her hands with Beth's, "That was awesome!" she giggled and reached for a chip from the bowl in front of her on the floor.

"I am awesome." Beth agreed with a shrug of her shoulders.

Carrie made a face; that girl never did like losing. "You were just lucky! Heather was jamming up _my _road."

"Was not!" Heather objected and kicked back in the couch, stretching her arms out and finishing with a sigh.

Carrie turned around a gave her a stern glare. "You so were! That was my road and you kept moving your stupid pink car right in front of mine!"

Heather just rolled her eyes. She didn't even bother with a comeback.

"Carrie, by the way," Beth butted in, that superior look across her face; the one she always got, when things went her way, "that was not luck," she pointed at the screen, "that was _skill_, baby!"

Once more, Kate laughed along with her, and Carrie dumped her controller to the floor and stood up, "I'll be leaving now anyway, I've got a huge English Lit assignment that I need to finish for Monday."

Heather sat up too and finished the last of her drink. "Yeah me too, I've... I've got to do something else." she locked her eyes with Beth's and almost couldn't keep herself from smiling when she thought of their conversation in the changing room last week. "Something that's _not _boring homework."

Beth snorted and turned to hide her face in a pillow. Carrie gave them all a suspicious look, but grabbed her bag just the same. Kate stood up too, to hug both Heather and Carrie. "I can't believe you're leaving already." she mumbled into Heather's hair.

Beth, who'd now stood up too, crossed her arms in front of her chest and said, "No, I really don't believe it either, you guys!" she screeched, knowing she couldn't have sounded more fake.

"I'll give you a ride home, Carrie." Heather said as she went for the door. Carrie quickly hugged Beth goodbye and was out the door in no time. When their steps had descented the staircase and the front door had smacked behind them, an awkward silence rose between the two girls when they turned to look at each other. The only thing that could be heard was the shallow laughter from the living room downstairs, where Lori was watching some old American sitcom.

Kate turned to look at her and shrugged her shoulders, "I guess it's just the two of us then, huh?"

Beth fell to the couch and put both her legs on the table, "I guess so. What do you wanna do? Race me and let me beat ya'?" she flashed all her teeth in the cutest smile, while she was nervous as hell on the inside, not sure whether or not she should go right at it – normally that would be the procedure for her, but this was different, it was more delicate, more important than all her stupid ex-boyfriends. This was... _Kate_.

"Actually," Kate said as she carefully took a seat next to her on the couch. "I really want to talk to you about something."

Kate felt her insides freeze for just a tiny second when those words left Kate's lips. She bit her lip in thought, wondering what Kate could possibly want to talk to her about. She then turned to look at her friend and raised an intrigued eyebrow. No matter what this was, she was certain that it had to be important. "What do you wanna talk about?" she whispered.

"Remember when I went on my date with John Tucker and you came to my rescue in the car?" Kate mumbled, her fingers fidgeting with first the hem of her shirt, then the ends of her hair.

Beth remembered that moment vividly. It had haunted her during several sleepless nights, simply because she couldn't get Kate out of her head; it had actually turned out to be quite the problem. Not getting any sleep definitely gave her some problems at school. "I do, yeah..."

Kate seemed to struggle greatly with this; she seemed to really have troubles getting the words across her lips, which really made Beth curious. Where could she possibly be going with this? What could she have to say that made her so, so nervous? One side of Beth, the more confident, sure side of Beth, felt the hope rise in her chest. Could she maybe, possibly, want to say what she wanted to say as well? Could she not be alone in this entire mess of feelings?

"Beth," Kate whispered, her eyes locking straight to Beth's that second, digging deeply into those hazel eyes she'd come to love so much. "that _kiss_..."

And right that second, when those words left Kate's lips, Beth knew she wasn't alone. She knew exactly where Kate was going with this, and the good thing was, that she wasn't going there alone – they could go there together. Not a doubt was left in Beth's mind about what to do. She reached out, slowly, and placed a gently hand behind Kate's neck. Pulling her head closer, she felt the air between them tense, felt her own arms raise goosebumps she hadn't even known existed. The moment from that night swept across her mind for a second, but after that, all she could focus on was Kate's lips, which were getting closer and closer to meet her own.

Just before their lips would meet, Kate paused. Beth immediately felt insecure, wasn't sure that this was the right time to do this, but Kate was smiling, which only confused the brunette.

"Wait a second..." Kate trailed off, and to Beth's surprise she pulled out the small camera they'd used on John as well – the boob-cam. It was hidden right where they'd hit it that time too, and when she'd pulled it all out, she threw it to the floor and wiped a pillow all over it. "For some reason... I don't want Carrie and Heather to witness our second kiss as well..."

Beth could feel a smile rise to her lips when she realized that Kate must have gone to Carrie for help, just like she'd gone to Heather. She shrugged her shoulders lightly, "And you should have known better than to put it in your bra," she giggled with a whisper, "I was gonna find that in like the first five minutes..."

Giggling, Kate finally leaned in closer and let their lips meet in a kiss.

On the street, right below Kate's bedroom window, Carrie and Heather both let out a loud groan.

"Those bitches!" Carrie said and carelessly threw her small screen onto the back-seat of Heather's car. "Here I am, installing her boob-cam yet again, and then she just... takes it off! How the hell are we supposed to know what's going on if she takes it off!"

"Those ungrateful girls!" Heather agreed and stuck her keys into the ignition of the car. "We are _never_ helping them again."

"No, definitely not." Carrie agreed.

There was a slight pause, and Heather still hadn't turned on the car.

"...you wanna go back in and spy on them?" the cheerleader suggested.

Carrie cracked a smile, "Oh my God, I thought you'd never ask!"

* * *

_Hello everyone :) thanks for tuning in on this little piece of mine. You know, I just recently resaw this movie for the first time since I bought it and got over my obsession with it (my best friends and I used to watch it constantly). I had been meaning to watch it again for some time and last weekend I finally had the time to. I really had forgotten how much I used to love this film, and most importantly **why** I used to love this film. _

_There's just something about Sophia Bush that even I can't resist. _

_Anyway. I got this idea after watching it again, and thought that I might as well give it a go. I hope you like it, because Kate and Beth are definitely the cutest thing :b Please drop off your thoughts, I'd love to know. _

_Oh. And I wasn't sure how to end this. I debated just leaving it after they kiss, but I really wanted to make sure that I ended the entire deal with Heather and Carrie at a good place as well – and also, who can resist a little craziness from Carrie? Even though she was the serious one in the film, I always saw her as the comic relief; she made me crack up constantly. So yeah. That's why I left it where I did. :) _

_**Disclaimer; **I don't own John Tucker Must Die. _


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